 First edition cover | |
| Author | Cormac McCarthy |
|---|---|
| Language | English, Spanish |
| Genre | Western, historical novel |
| Publisher | Random House |
Publication date | April 1985 |
| Publication place | United States |
| Media type | Print (hard and paperback) |
| Pages | 337 (first edition), 351 (25th anniversary edition) |
| ISBN | 0-394-54482-X (first edition, hardback) |
| OCLC | 234287599 |
| 813/.54 19 | |
| LC Class | PS3563.C337 B4 1985 |
Blood Meridian; or, The Evening Redness in the West is a 1985 epic historical novel by American author Cormac McCarthy, classified under the Western, or sometimes the anti-Western, genre.[1][2] McCarthy's fifth book, it was published by Random House.
Set in the American frontier with a loose historical context, the narrative follows a fictional teenager from Tennessee referred to as "the kid", with the bulk of the text devoted to his experiences with the Glanton gang, a historical group of scalp hunters who massacred American Indians and others in the United States–Mexico borderlands from 1849 to 1850 for bounty, sadistic pleasure, and eventually out of nihilistic habit. The role of antagonist is gradually filled by Judge Holden, a physically massive, highly educated, preternaturally skilled member of the gang with pale and hairless skin who takes extreme sadistic pleasure in the destruction and domination of whatever he encounters, including children and docile animals.
Although the novel initially received lukewarm critical and commercial reception, it has since become highly acclaimed and is widely recognized as McCarthy's magnum opus and one of the greatest American novels of all time.[3] Some have labelled it the Great American Novel.[4]
- ^ Kollin, Susan (2001). "Genre and the Geographies of Violence: Cormac McCarthy and the Contemporary Western". Contemporary Literature. 42 (3). University of Wisconsin Press: 557–88. doi:10.2307/1208996. JSTOR 1208996.
- ^ Hage, Erik. Cormac McCarthy: A Literary Companion. North Carolina: 2010. p. 45
- ^ "Harold Bloom on Blood Meridian". The A.V. Club. 15 June 2009. Archived from the original on June 18, 2009.
- ^ Dalrymple, William. "Blood Meridian is the Great American Novel". Reader's Digest. Archived from the original on 2020-07-28. Retrieved 2020-04-22.
McCarthy's descriptive powers make him the best prose stylist working today, and this book the Great American Novel.